Our society is a highly materialistic one. It encourages consumerism without warning people about hoarding and wasteful, impulsive purchases. After all, it is all about business these days so the more people buy, the more money businesses make. In the recent years, the minimalist lifestyle has gained popularity among those who wanted to go against a lifestyle of wasteful consumerism. For the past year, I myself have been experimenting with this lifestyle. And even with the small and gradual changes I’ve made, I find minimalism to be life changing. Allow me to share some benefits of a minimalist lifestyle.
Obviously, if you are not spending your money on things, then more of it goes to your savings and/or investments.
When you only keep the things that you actually use, everything is utilized and valued. This way, the money you spend is not wasted on things that you will just put in storage for years to come.
With no stuff to mask insecurities and problems, you will have to face the demons inside you. With no stuff to define you, you are forced to take a good hard look at who you are and what you’ve become.
If you buy and have less stuff, then there is less to throw away. Plus, in a minimalist lifestyle, you have to maximize the use of things before throwing them away. As a result, you are not constantly adding waste to the landfills.
With less stuff to worry about, you have more time for the things that actually matter. These are experiences, hobbies, family and friends, and your goals. You only have what makes you happy thus, life becomes more fulfilling.
Don’t you just hate having to allocate a whole day just for cleaning, organizing, repairing, and maintaining the things you own? That day could have been used for better things like spending time with friends, engaging in your hobby, or just relaxing. Think about it: if you have less stuff, you need less time to organize, clean, repair, and maintain them.
In a minimalist lifestyle, you don’t have useless or unnecessary things to weigh you down. You don’t need to work those extra hours to pay for things you don’t really use or need. Living arrangement will be less of a problem because you don’t need a big space to hold your things. You feel lighter and change becomes easier to deal with.
Instead of going out to buy what you don’t have, you learn to work with what you have. A great example of this is how you can learn to make full use of the clothes, shoes, and accessories in your wardrobe.
Living a minimalist lifestyle doesn’t mean that you are not allowed to own stuff. The point of this lifestyle is that you only keep the things that make you happy and that have actual purpose in your life. A minimalist lifestyle doesn’t allow for stuff that is meant to fill a void in your life or personality. When you live a minimalist lifestyle, you choose to stop hiding behind things and to start living a life that is focused on personal growth, authenticity and experiences. After reading this, do you think you will give minimalism a try?
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